The carrageenan treatment effects on basil resistance against field dodder invasion

Field dodder is a holostemparasitic plant without leaves and roots that obtains its resources entirely from its host plants. Control of dodder is extremely difficult. Environmental friendly control of field dodder seems to be useful. Carrageenans can act as elicitors and activate plant defense responses. In this work, relationship between dodder and its host, sweet basil, and effects of κ-carrageenan on protection against dodder and suppression of its invasion were studied. In the present study, we observed that carrageenan treatment significantly increased the growth parameters. The lignin and cellulose content of the carrageenan treated-basil did not show significant but the carrageenan treatment significantly increased the lignin and cellulose content of basil plant that parasitized by dodder. The present results indicate that the foliar spray of basil plants by carrageenan stimulated basil resistance against field dodder invasion, thus it is recommended as natural biostimulator for protection of plants against field dodder plants.